Out of the ashes!

Good Morning to you all. Its a lovely bright start here but a bit chilly and a touch of frost. But I can live with that!

I spent most of my crafting time yesterday doing things for the wedding but it was great to have Paul and Maria to watch on Hochanda as I was working! The wedding preparations are coming along really well so happy about that!

The artwork I want to share today is one of the Groovi samples I did for Maria's fantastical shows yesterday. I just loved this phoenix image. It cried out to be decoupaged which I did with the stamp but I also did a bit with the parchment.

Anyway here is the completed card and below are the instructions.

Ingredients
Nested Rectangles GRO-WO-40524-04
Phoenix plate GRO-FY-40363-02
De Boss Alphabet plate GRO-WO-40801-02
De Boss Number plate GRO-WO-40802-02
Semi Square Perforating Tool PER-TO-70021-XX
Black Parchment
Red parchment


1. Working on black parchment emboss the phoenix and the outline of the flames. De-boss the letters and exclamation mark. Use the nested rectangles to add the frame around the image adjusting the size as needed.
2. Add white work to the phoenix feathers. Remove the black colour using a pencil eraser on the parts you want coloured. Add red and yellow using Perga colours.
3. Semi perforate around the frame with a semi square tool and emboss triangles in the perforations. Reperforate and cut waste from the edge. Put to one side.
4. On red parchment emboss the fire part of the plate. Emboss parts with white work. Add red colour to some flames to deepen the colour. Rub out the colour from the rest of the flames and add orange and yellow to the design. Perforate around the flame and cut away waste.
5. Use glue runner or Perga glue to stick the flames in place onto the design.
6. Attach the parchment piece to the gold card with brads and mat on to orange card then mount on a card blank.
7. Add gold ink to the image on the phoenix and in the flames.

If you have a go at this please let me know.

Have a great day whatever you get up to and....
Happy Crafting!

Butterfly in lace!

Hello to you all and thank you for dropping in today.

I had a fab day yesterday shopping with Amy. She was after getting her wedding shoes and also a dress for her trip with the girls to Berlin for her girly hen do which she did! I managed to get a bag to match the shoes I have got for the wedding too! So all is good and on track! It is only 5 months to the big day now!

I keep on getting asked how I do the circular border using the lace corner border plate so instead of words I will show you! 

The border I mean is on this card! 

I hope you can follow the pictures below to get how I do it!

Use the nested octagon as a guide

Choose the corner you want

Position the corner over the octagon and attach your parchment. It is better if you use a lightwave to do this as you can see it better. Emboss it.

Move corner plate to the next corner of the octagon keeping the parchment still and emboss the next corner. It is important that you don't move the parchment as it won't meet up if you do!

Repeat until you have 8 corners done.

Use the octagonal plate to join the gaps

Here are a couple of other cards I have made using the same corner and technique. It is amazing how this border works well for so many occasions. 

I hope that has helped those who want to have a go at this! 

Happy Crafting

Rain Rain GO away!!!

Good morning all. It really is a very wet one today and blowing a gale too! Totally yuk! I really need to get to the post office today so I hope this weather subsides a bit. I only stuck my head out the door and got soaked earlier. 
I do have some crafty secret stuff to do so looks like that's what I will be doing later.

Did you watch the Pergamano Show on Hochanda this morning? I had a lie in and watched it in bed. It was such a fab show and I felt like I had learnt a lot by the end of the first hour! Can't wait for the next one at 12noon. 

It was pure magic watching Linda Williams using the embossing tools and creating a beautiful piece of artwork. And the examples she showed of her whitework were stunning! I can only hope that one day I may be half as good as she is. 

You can imagine my surprise when one of my samples got shown ….I do not consider myself to be a parcher … I am a stamper...that's what I do. But I have enjoyed getting to grips with the groovi system and like to learn the Pergamano techniques now that I can get the line art on the parchment. 

I have not done the instructions for this one today but it isn't hard to do. It uses the 123 plates that Linda designed along with the stamp plates. I used stippling in the edges of the stamps. That took a while to do. And I think what makes this one look so pretty is the colours and bits of whitework on the flowers.

Hope you have a great day whatever you get up to.
Happy Crafting

Daisy and the fairy

This has to be a real quick on tonight.

So I will share a sample and instructions from the weekend shows

A little bit of layering on this one and use of my favourite perforating tool around the fairy! 

Ingredients.

Daisy Fairy with Butterflies  GRO-FY-41172-01

Made with love PTC plate GRO-PA-41114-03

Tina's Floral Layering Plate GRO-PA-41077-03

Floral forest background  GRO-FL-41101-03

Nested Square GRO-PA-40037-03

Semi square perforating tool

Black parchment

Antique silver brads

1. On black parchment  emboss  PTC sized frame with a double line edge. Fill this with the fairy plate.  Emboss white work in the design as shown.  Perforate around the edge with the semi square tool and emboss dots in the edge. Reperforate then cut away waste. Put to one side.

2. On the rest of the parchment emboss a square frame using the 2nd and 3rd sized square then emboss two overlapping areas in the frame. Fill with the background and layering plates. Perforate around the frame and cut away waste.

3. Attach the larger piece to the grey card with brads then add the smaller piece. 

4. Mat onto black card then Mount on a card blank. Add glitter and shimmer pen to the design.

Hope you like it! 

Happy Crafting

Nellie in the flowers

Good morning all. I am glad you could pop in again today. It's cold innit! We have a sprinkle of the white stuff outside....it just looks like someone has been out with the icing sugar and given everywhere a dusting! I don't have much planned for today as I have plenty of secret stuff to do so it's all about staying safe and warm today. 
Did you read Barbara Gray's blog yesterday? It featured a card made by Barbara Lancaster using the elephant stencil! I think it's a brilliant stencil and I have used it a lot! And at the moment its on offer over at Claritystamp...well for a couple more days it is! 
So I thought I would show you one of my creations using the stencil and using the same flower stamps as I used on yesterdays blog. 
Here is the card and below are the usual ingredients and instructions should you decide to have a go!

Ingredients.

Tina’s Doodle Flowers Fine Line A4 Stamp Set STA-FL-10620-A4

Elephant stencil STE-AN-00270-77

Artistry inks (Selection of bright colours)

Pergamano Blending pen PER-AC-70303-XX

Black fine liner pen

Sparkle pen

Black Sharpie Pen

1. Working on 7x7 stencil card attach the elephant stencil near the bottom of the card using low tack tape to keep it in position. Brush yellow ink into areas of the stencil then pink then blue overlapping the colours. Finally without adding more ink brush over with the yellow to ensure all the shape is covered. Remove the stencil and edge the shape with a fine liner.

2. Stamp the birds and dragonflies on in place. Stamp a selection of flowers at the base of the card over the stencilled elephant then use the solid stamps to fill in the colour on the flowers. Stamp the stems and leaves.

3. Using a blender pen and nibs add colour to the birds, dragonflies and leaves using artistry ink and water to help blend.

4. Edge the card with black sharpie pen and attach to a card blank. Add sparkle pen to the dragonflies' wings.

Hope you have a great day whatever you decide on doing. Stay safe and warm.

Happy Crafting 

Hello Flower!

Good morning all! It's a bright sunny day here today but very cold. I don't mind that as you can wrap up to stay warm to venture out! I need to go to the post office this morning with secret stuff so I need to be quick with this one today.

I thought I would share a sample I did using Tina's Doodle flowers stamps. They are fab and can be used in a number of ways.

Here is the card and I have included the ingredients and instructions below. 

Ingredients.

Tina’s Doodle Flowers Fine Line A4 Stamp Set STA-FL-10620-A4

Vases 2 stencil  STE-HO-00213

Artistry inks ( brown and blue)

Promarkers

Sparkle pen ( Clear)

Black Sharpie Pen

1. Cut a piece of stencil card to 12cmx17cm. Attach the vase into position masking off the others around it with low tack tape. Drag brown ink into the vase shape leaving the centre lighter. Use a piece of card to mask off the main part of the vase to darken the base. Stamp a pattern in the same ink using one of the patterned circle stamps. Remove the stencil.

2. Add the inny part of the stencil over the vase and hold in place with lowtack tape . Brush brown ink below the tape to create a table top. Make the ink darker around the vase to create a shadow.

3. VERY Lightly brush blue ink around the top of the card leaving the centre white. I used what I had on my brush without adding more ink.

4. Keeping the inny stencil in place Stamp the flowers, stems and leaves. Now remove the stencil and add one more leaf . Add the tiny dragon flies.

5. Colour the flowers leaves and dragon flies with promarkers. Add sparkle pen to the dragonflies.

6. Edge with a black sharpie pen and mount on a card blank.

I hope you like todays project and if you have a go at it please share it on the Clarity Worldwide face book page but adding where you found the inspiration.

Happy Crafting 

Baby Jane

Hello all and welcome to my blog again!

I have had to have a break from doing my blog for a couple of days as I had other things I needed to prioritise but I hope you won't mind that! It's been a great week as far as Clarity is concerned and a busy month a head too and January isn't over yet!

Colin has been sorting out some paperwork and putting our new shredder to good use. It's one of those that almost minces the paper up so no chance of anyone getting out personal details from our discarded post! He has found lots of interesting things in with our pile of paperwork including baby pictures of me and my brother. The only difference in them is that mine are black and white and Andrew's are in colour! He also found a photo of my mum when she was 10. So lovely. I want to get a frame for that one. 

Anyway my baby phot was sitting on the table when I started to do my samples for Paul's show using the fabulous plates designed by Linda Williams. So it gave me the idea to turn one of the plates into a frame. I scanned my picture in to my PC and then printed it out to the size I wanted 

Here is the finished card with the instructions as usual below.

Ingredients.

Linda's New arrival plate - Bottles and rattle GRO-CN-41162-03

Mini semi circle perforating tool  PER-TO-70034-XX

Perga Colours exclusive

White blendable pencil

Dorso oil

Baby Photo

ribbon

1. On plain parchment emboss the bottom part of the plate up to the bottles then extend the lines to fit the photo and emboss the ribbons and bows to create the frame for the picture.

2. Emboss whitework as shown on the design.
3. Add colour to the reverse using the Perga colours. Use a white pencil to colour the bottles and blend with dorso oil.
4. Semi perforate with the mini semi circle tool around the 3 straight sides. Emboss a semi circle in each one then reperforate. Perforate around the scallops and inside the frame with the bold 2 needle tool. Cut away waste.
5. Position the picture in the frame and attach with a tiny dot of Perga glue.
6. Attach to a piece of glitter card with brads and red liner tape behind the photo. Mount on a card blank. Add a ribbon to the front.

 You could easily change the colour to blue for a boy. 

Please let me know what you think by leaving a quick message below. 

Have a great day what ever to get up to.

Happy Crafting